Turkey's emergency rule expires amid proposal of new 'anti-terror' law

A two-year state of emergency imposed after Turkey's failed 2016 coup will end on Thursday but a draft anti-terrorism law leaves the AKP government with sweeping powers to stifle dissent.

The AKP government has said it will not seek a renewal of the state of emergency, allowing it to lapse two years after it was imposed and days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was sworn in as president for a fresh five-year term with extraordinary new powers narrowly approved in a fraudulent referendum last year.

A few days before the end of the emergency rule, the AKP government issued the draft bill to the parliamentary commission, proposing to make amendments in several laws related to security regulations.

New anti-terrorism laws, which the government says will prevent "an interruption in the fight against terrorism", will be discussed in parliament on Thursday.

The proposed law grants local governors authority to limit entrances and exits to their cities, to ban public events and declare extraordinary security measures.

It also allows authorities to press ahead with mass dismissals of civil servants and hold suspects in custody for up to 12 days. It also broadens the scope to ban demonstrations.

The state of emergency, imposed in the wake of the July 2016 failed coup aimed at unseating Erdoğan, has been extended seven times. The state of emergency is not marked by the purge in the army or the jurisdiction, but it was marked by the opportunities offered to the bourgeoisie.

Erdoğan had argued that the government disappointed those who wished to demolish the democracy as well as the economy of Turkey.

The Labour Studies Association mapped the worker demonstrations of 2016. Since the declaration of the state of emergency last year, the number of the demonstrations of the working class decreased by a third.

Since emergency rule was declared, more than 150,000 civil servants have been purged and 77,000 people suspected of links to the attempted coup have been charged.